City Boy #2 – Greg Pak, Writer; Minkyu Jung, Artist; Sunny Gho, Colorist
Ray – 8.5/10
Ray: The third of the new heroes introduced in Lazarus Planet and given spotlight series in AAPI month, this new character created by Greg Pak has been a unique new addition to the Metropolis ecosystem. When we met Cameron last issue, he appeared to be a low-level metahuman who had the ability to communicate with cities to find lost trinkets, get clues, and otherwise scrape by for a living after he was abandoned by his mother years ago. However, this brought him into conflict with a local crime boss, who attacked the only friend he had made in the city—and this brought up memories of the strange experiment in which he got his powers. Long story short, Cameron might not be a low-level metahuman at all—he might be an alpha mutate who has a psychic connection to the very core of the city, and be able to manipulate it in a way that many powerful figures would kill to get their hands on.
The concept of a reluctant alpha meta is intriguing, and it’s clear even the villain of the first issue is taken aback by just how powerful Cameron is. The arrival of Bruno Mannheim, the head of Intergang, complicates things, and can I say just how great this character’s concept is? He’s an old-timey mob boss who works for an evil alien dictator, and his crimes are designed to pave the way for Darkseid’s invasion. That’s a concept that only the great Jack Kirby could come up with, completely untethered from his more straight-laced collaborators. This entire series has a bit of Kirby energy in it, with mad scientists everywhere and Cameron’s true powers manifesting themselves in a wildly over-the-top way. The arrival of another major DC figure at the end of the issue has a lot of promise, as Cameron’s interaction with them should be a lot of fun. This series is a little fast-paced and busy, but it has a lot of promise.
To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week.
GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
